1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of object identification using RFID tags and, more particularly, to a solution for efficiently managing serialization of EPC identifiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
An ELECTRONIC PRODUCT CODE (EPC) is an identification scheme for universally identifying physical objects via Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and other means. EPC was the creation of the MIT Auto-ID Center that is currently managed by EPCglocal Inc. The EPC scheme is designed to meet the needs of various industries, while guaranteeing uniqueness for all EPC-compliant tags. The format and contents of an EPC-compliant tag are governed by the EPCglobal Tag Data Specification (TDS).
Various retailers including WAL-MART, TARGET, and the US Department of Defense (DoD) are requiring suppliers to tag material with an EPC identifier encoded on an RFID tag in order to increase visibility of goods moving within a supply chain. This requires the generation of an EPC identifier for each case/pallet of goods shipped and potentially (if tagging is required at an item level) the generation of an EPC identifier for each item. Additionally, RFID chips are currently being implanted in pets and in some instances in humans for identification purposes. All of these applications for RFID tags having EPC identifiers can result in a huge number of identifiers that must be generated and/or managed.
To complicate matters, the TDS, a specification managed by EPCglobal, Inc., requires that each EPC identifier includes a serial number that is unique for each tagged object/location/entity or collection thereof. In order to maintain uniqueness, current versions of the TDS require that each assigned serial number can either never be reused or may only be reused after a specified time period so as to prevent potential ambiguities in ascertaining the identity of a tagged item. Further, each unique serial number is only a portion of the entire EPC identifier. It can be difficult to manage the unique serialization of EPC identifiers in addition to other EPC identifier fields. No conventional solution/technology exists to efficiently generate and manage unique serial number portions of EPC identifiers.